Passport & Plate - Sussumiddi
Italy | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos
Ingredients
Sussamiele
1 # Flour
.5 # sugar/.5# honey
1 # almonds, toasted
6 oz melted chocolate
5 oz grape jelly
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1 Orange, zest of
½ c espresso
How to prepare this recipe• Cook the honey and the sugar until the sugar dissolves. Cool slightly then add the grape jelly and the chocolate and stir until it is a smooth mixture.
• Meanwhile toast the almonds in a 350* F oven for 12- 15 minutes until they are fragrant.
• Make a pot of espresso or at least 4 ounces.
• In a bowl, or on the counter, (if you want to be authentic) mix the flour, cinnamon, zest, and cloves. Slowly mix in the liquid ingredients including the cooled espresso, only as much as is needed. Work in the almonds. This should be a fairly firm dough, not unlike chocolate chip cookies, but use your hands so it does not get over mixed.
• Cover with the bowl and let it rest for one hour.
• Heat oven to 400* F
• Roll into 4 thick flattened logs, about 4 inches wide by 12” long.
• Cut diagonally to form fingers or diamonds and place on floured or parchment lined cookie sheets.
• Bake for 7-8 minutes. They will still look raw, but don’t overcook or they will become hard.
• When completely cool, dip them in powdered sugar and water glaze and let dry on brown paper.
The story behind this recipeEvery kid I grew up with in the Italian section of Brooklyn was the grandchild of Italian immigrants. We shared an understanding of the world, religion, and especially food. Sure, my Nonna’s sauce tasted different than Gina’s Nonna’s, but basically we had the same foods - the same traditions - except for sussumiddi. No one had sussumiddi, or anything like it. We loved our Christmas treats and shared them with our friends who always eyed them with a bit of suspicion. The bite of cinnamon and cloves were much more demanding of attention than the mellow flavors of American butter cookies or torrone.
My Apuglian Nonna died long before I could meet her and her recipes with her. Only my mother’s memories of watching, but not helping, her in the kitchen remained. As I baked alongside of my mother we recreated the sussumiddi with the American ingredients but my mother shared over the years the things that were different. “My mother used peanuts because almonds were too expensive; she used vincotto instead of grape jelly, but I don’t know how she made it; she used chocolate syrup because it was less expensive than chocolate.”
I have kept and made my mother’s version of the sussumiddi all my life while I yearned to know the truth of this original recipe and visit the hometown of my grandparents, Terlizzi. I experimented, and when the internet arrived I searched for more information but it was still too new to have the depth of detail I sought. In time, the secret of Puglese vincotto was revealed.
Eventually, I made my way to Italy, to Puglia, with only enough Italian to keep myself out of jail and landed in a B&B in tiny Terlizzi with the most astonishing hosts. They knew Terlizzi well and helped me find the home of my grandparents with only a picture of the front door! I also asked about my beloved sussumiddi. They said, “No sussumiddi – sussamiele.” The next day, at dinner, sitting on my plate was a package of ancient Terlizzian sussamiele.
